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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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@DragonParadox
Do we know where the active wardstones are?

I don't mean the ones we intend to steal, but the ones currently keeping us from casting and teleporting.
If we went for those we might give ourselves the ability to take any comers the CoB can gather for a fast response.
 
Artemis1992 said:
@DragonParadox
Do we know where the active wardstones are?

I don't mean the ones we intend to steal, but the ones currently keeping us from casting and teleporting.
If we went for those we might give ourselves the ability to take any comers the CoB can gather for a fast response.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'll get back to you on this.

I am going to have to get back to the literal drawing board and make a map. This is going to take a while since I am not good at that, but it is clear what I had in mind where the interplay is of timing is not going to work.
 
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Part MMMDCCCXV: Into the Fray
  • Threadmarks
    • Into the Fray ​

    Eleventh Day of the Ninth Month 294 AC

    "So which way do we go?" Ser Richard asks as he wipes off Oathkeeper's blade on the robes of a dead foe, in a gesture at once familiar and little used of late. The blood of genies does not burn so easily off the blade as that of men for all that they die just the same.

    The dead do not answer, and you do not have the time to make them. So instead you project a map in the air woven of light and glamor, barely a whisper of a spell. Alas, there is almost as much fog as there are lines and symbols, though you can at least be certain that what you did find out is accurate. Your erstwhile 'friend' would have had no reason to lie to you for all you would have preferred a more complete accounting.


    Two paths open before you now that you have sent the others back, well three perhaps, but the third is more guesswork than fact. If you travel Darkward back the way you had come, you can take one of the secondary corridors straight past the armory and right to the stairway that leads to the vault. As is oft the case, the most direct path is also the most dangerous as you would not only have to go past a check point, but also the primary armory, which would likely be on the highest alert given the attack Lya and the others had just enacted. Alternatively, you could continue down the main corridor then take a left towards the temple of the Great Sultan, which has a passage directly to the lower levels in its living quarters.

    Lastly, you could take a left right here through a heavy lead-lined door that leads roughly in the direction of the officers quarters right above the armory. If you can just find another way parallel to the main corridor the three of you might be able to avoid all the check points... but only if you are willing to step wholly into the unknown.

    "If whatever or whoever is in there needs a direct path to the armory, I doubt they will be waiting for us with fresh-baked pies," Garin notes. "On the other hand, they might have been drawn away by the distraction which almost certainly will not be the case at any of the check points."

    "What about this part?" Ser Richard circles an area of mist below the soldiers quarters. "We would have to go by it if we head by the temple. There was a door there, wasn't there?"

    "More like a shoot for some kind of mechanical conveyance I think, I could sense the bound elemental..." You trail off. "It did not feel quite like the ones at the batteries outside."

    Which way do you go?

    [] Down the main corridor and then past the check point and by the armory, the fastest surest way

    [] All the way down the main corridor and through the temple

    [] Through the unknown door above the armory, hoping to bypass all the known dangers

    [] Write in

    OOC: The last two updates have been ret-coned because the timing based system I was hoping to use either messed up strategic considerations or handed your enemies an idiot ball and of course neither of those were desirable. I know the map is not the best, hopefully it is at least readable.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Into the Fray ​

    Eleventh Day of the Ninth Month 294 AC

    "So which way do we go?" Ser Richard asks as he wipes off Oathkeeper's blade on the robes of a dead foe, in a gesture at once familiar and little used of late. The blood of genies does not burn so easily off the blade as that of men for all that they die just the same.

    The dead do not answer, and you do not have the time to make them. So instead you project a map in the air woven of light and glamor, barely a whisper of a spell. Alas, there is almost as much fog as there are lines and symbols, though you can at least be certain that what you did find out is accurate. Your erstwhile 'friend' would have had no reason to lie to you for all you would have preferred a more complete accounting.


    Two paths open before you now that you have sent the others back, well three perhaps, but the third is more guesswork than fact. If you travel Darkward back the way you had come, you can take one of the secondary corridors straight past the armory and right to the stairway that leads to the vault. As is oft the case, the most direct path is also the most dangerous as you would not only have to go past a check point, but also the primary armory, which would likely be on the highest alert given the attack Lya and the others had just enacted. Alternatively, you could continue down the main corridor then take a left towards the temple of the Great Sultan, which has a passage directly to the lower levels in its living quarters.

    Lastly, you could take a left right here through a heavy lead-lined door that leads roughly in the direction of the officers quarters right above the armory. If you can just find another way parallel to the main corridor the three of you might be able to avoid all the check points... but only if you are willing to step wholly into the unknown.

    "If whatever or whoever is in there needs a direct path to the armory, I doubt they will be waiting for us with fresh-baked pies," Garin notes. "On the other hand, they might have been drawn away by the distraction which almost certainly will not be the case at any of the check points."

    "What about this part?" Ser Richard circles an area of mist below the soldiers quarters. "We would have to go by it if we head by the temple. There was a door there, wasn't there?"

    "More like a shoot for some kind of mechanical conveyance I think, I could sense the bound elemental..." You trail off. "It did not feel quite like the ones at the batteries outside."

    Which way do you go?

    [] Down the main corridor and then past the check point and by the armory, the fastest surest way

    [] All the way down the main corridor and through the temple

    [] Through the unknown door above the armory, hoping to bypass all the known dangers

    [] Write in

    OOC: The last two updates have been ret-coned because the timing based system I was hoping to use either messed up strategic considerations or handed your enemies an idiot ball and of course neither of those were desirable. I know the map is not the best, hopefully it is at least readable. Not yet edited.
    Here's an edited version of the chapter, @DragonParadox.
     
    I have a feeling the unknown door is probably the best way, but I can't get past the uncertainty of that route.

    [X] Down the main corridor and then past the check point and by the armory, the fastest surest way
     
    I read before it was retconned that the wardstones cannot be transported by gate.
    How are we going to transport the stolen wardstones? Iam confused.:???:
     
    Artemis1992 said:
    @DragonParadox
    Do we know where the active wardstones are?

    I don't mean the ones we intend to steal, but the ones currently keeping us from casting and teleporting.
    If we went for those we might give ourselves the ability to take any comers the CoB can gather for a fast response.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    @DragonParadox
    So, guessing from the map we do not know where the active wardstones are, only where our intended loot is?
     
    Part MMMDCCCXVI: Light Rests the Helm
  • Threadmarks
    • Light Rests the Helm ​

    Eleventh Day of the Ninth Month 294 AC

    Unseen you are by thinnest glamor that you can conjure and silent are your steps in the flame forged halls. Not even Ser Richard's steel tread can be said to be said to be louder than the passage of Garin's shadow, the same spell that has seen the guards killed serving you now in good stead walking back along the path you came. Yet far from silent is your way.

    A great brass gong, inescapable and without source rings and rings and rings again. Fire, foes, and treachery it proclaims in wordless fury at those who had dared trespass upon the domain of the Brazen Throne. Dervishes in flowing robes and acolytes of the guild of Shapers rush towards the place of the attack with more pouring in from the living quarters on either side of you. Fortunately, no one seems yet inclined to look to the door you had, under figment opened... not yet at least, though it is hard to judge how long your luck will hold.

    At Garin's suggestion, you had swept up all the corpses in your cloak in the hope that the disappearance would cause at least a moment more confusion, but you have no doubt that a far worse alarm will go off should the chamber be investigated in earnest.

    As the sound of the gong fades to be replaced with the march of booted feet and the whirring of arcane gears with the passage of guardian golems, you turn the corner to face the check point.

    The four guards are as you had seen them, guarding the two ends of the arch on either side and looking across the corridor with wariness undimmed by habit... and all of them have sight that cannot be foiled by glamor. Garin could probably sneak across even so, for the shadows are his friends and secrecy his boon companion, but you and ser Richard do not share the skill. There must be another way ...

    At first sight, the helms they bear are no more and no less than means of piercing illusions, the ruby in the center of the forehead a third crimson eye, but there is another spell entwined with it, almost too faint to notice. What in the Hells.... you somehow doubt the sultan has gifted them sorcery to help comfort them on the long watch. It's being used as levitation of all things, you realize a moment later, lightening the helms ever so slightly, but the why of it still escapes you. It cannot be to make them more effective, the force exerted is barely enough to notice.

    Enough to notice...

    The lesser spell is designed to ensure that they notice if their true sight is suppressed. Clever, though you are in no position to fully appreciate it, seeing as they are in your damn way. If there was just one guard you might be able to get away with dispelling the sight and holding up the helm before they even notice the weight, but two is more than you can affect in time.

    "I could carry you past," Garin says after you briefly explain what you had seen. "My magic bag won't work in here but your cloak does..."

    "It cannot carry living beings and every spell I know that would make us not count as alive is too powerful to risk."

    "Maybe if you shrunk down with one of those fey mushrooms, I could carry you..."     He sounds more dubious this time and not without cause, being half your size would still leave you as rather ungainly to carry for Garin, perhaps enough to trip even his stealth. "I would have to take two trips."

    What do you do?

    [] Use Reduce Person mushrooms and hope that Garin can hide you well enough to run past the guards, twice

    [] Try another plan
    -[] Write in

    [] Try one of the other routes
    -[] Write in

    [] Write in

    OOC: These are going to be naturally short, but I will try to get a good clip with them.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • DragonParadox said:
    Light Rests the Helm ​

    Eleventh Day of the Ninth Month 294 AC

    Unseen you are by thinnest glamor that you can conjure and silent are your steps in the flame forged halls. Not even Ser Richard's steel tread can be said to be said to be louder than the passage of Garin's shadow, the same spell that has seen the guards killed serving you now in good stead walking back along the path you came. Yet far from silent is your way.

    A great brass gong, inescapable and without source rings and rings and rings again. Fire, foes, and treachery it proclaims in wordless fury at those who had dared trespass upon the domain of the Brazen Throne. Dervishes in flowing robes and acolytes of the guild of Shapers rush towards the place of the attack with more pouring in from the living quarters on either side of you. Fortunately, no one seems yet inclined to look to the door you had, under figment opened... not yet at least, though it is hard to judge how long your luck will hold.

    At Garin's suggestion, you had swept up all the corpses in your cloak in the hope that the disappearance would cause at least a moment more confusion, but you have no doubt that a far worse alarm will go off should the chamber be investigated in earnest.

    As the sound of the gong fades to be replaced with the march of booted feet and the whirring of arcane gears with the passage of guardian golems, you turn the corner to face the check point.

    The four guards are as you had seen them, guarding the two ends of the arch on either side and looking across the corridor with wariness undimmed by habit... and all of them have sight that cannot be foiled by glamor. Garin could probably sneak across even so, for the shadows are his friends and secrecy his boon companion, but you and ser Richard do not share the skill. There must be another way ...

    At first sight, the helms they bear are no more and no less than means of piercing illusions, the ruby in the center of the forehead a third crimson eye, but there is another spell entwined with it, almost too faint to notice. What in the Hells.... you somehow doubt the sultan has gifted them sorcery to help comfort them on the long watch. It's being used as levitation of all things, you realize a moment later, lightening the helms ever so slightly, but the why of it still escapes you. It cannot be to make them more effective, the force exerted is barely enough to notice.

    Enough to notice...

    The lesser spell is designed to ensure that they notice if their true sight is suppressed. Clever, though you are in no position to fully appreciate it, seeing as they are in your damn way. If there was just one guard you might be able to get away with dispelling the sight and holding up the helm before they even notice the weight, but two is more than you can affect in time.

    "I could carry you past," Garin says after you briefly explain what you had seen. "My magic bag won't work in here but your cloak does..."

    "It cannot carry living beings and every spell I know that would make us not count as alive is too powerful to risk."

    "Maybe if you shrunk down with one of those fey mushrooms, I could carry you..."     He sounds more dubious this time and not without cause, being half your size would still leave you as rather ungainly to carry for Garin, perhaps enough to trip even his stealth. "I would have to take two trips."

    What do you do?

    [] Use Reduce Person mushrooms and hope that Garin can hide you well enough to run past the guards, twice

    [] Try another plan
    -[] Write in

    [] Try one of the other routes
    -[] Write in

    [] Write in

    OOC: These are going to be naturally short, but I will try to get a good clip with them. Not yet edited.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Here's an edited version of the chapter, DP.
     
    @DragonParadox, could Viserys and Richard use their Greater Ribbons of Disguise to shrink down to Small size, then eat Fairy Caps to reduce themselves to Tiny size?
     
    So there are four CR17 rune giants here right?
    That would be a difficult enemy if they have another trick under their sleeve to detect garin or if he rolls terribly.
     
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